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The Victoria Royals have signed F Ethan Price, 18, who played part of last season with the Portland Winterhawks. Price

Ethan Price has left Portland and ended up in Victoria.

left the Winterhawks during last season and went home to Lincoln, Neb., where he played for the USHL’s Lincoln Stars. . . . The Winterhawks dropped him from their protected list, and the Royals added him. . . . “Ethan is a strong and skilled two-way player who has experience in the WHL,” Cam Hope, the Royals’ general manager, said in a news release. “We are pleased to have him join the Royals’ family.” . . . Price, who scored two goals in the Royals' intrasquad game last night, had four goals and five assists in 38 games with Portland last season. In 30 games with the Stars, he had three goals and six assists. . . . The Winterhawks selected him in the sixth round of the 2012 bantam draft. In two seasons in Portland, he had 17 points, eight of them goals, in 105 games.
The Royals also have signed F Tyler Thompson, 18, who was added to their protected list earlier this year. . . . The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Thompson, from Lakeville, Minn., played last season with the U18 AAA Omaha Lancers and the U18 Minnesota Revolution of the North American Prospects League. He totalled three goals and nine assists in 22 games with those teams.
——-The Swift Current Broncos have signed F Riley Stotts of Winnipeg, their first-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. "It sure is (a relief)," Mark Lamb, the Broncos’ general manager and head coach, told Shawn Mullin, the radio voice of the Broncos. “He's a special player that we took 10th overall and we really need him in this organization. He's a gamebreaker and a great skater. We're very happy to get him signed.” . . . Stotts had 68 points, including 39 goals, in 29 games with the bantam AAA Winnipeg Monarchs last season. . . . As a 2000-born player, Stotts isn’t eligible to play full-time in the WHL this season. The Broncos haven’t said where he will play, although the Winnipeg Free Press reported earlier this summer that he had been offered a scholarship by the Red Bull Salzburg organization in Austria. . . . Lamb plans on getting Stotts into an exhibition game or two before he returns home.
——The Medicine Hat Tigers have signed G Rylan Rommelaere, 16, F Baxter Anderson, 15, and F Josh McNeil, 15. . . . All three took part in the Tigers’ training camp. . . . Rommelaere, a second-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft, played last season with the bantam AAA Southwest Cougars in Manitoba. He was 7-15-0, 3.29, .888. . . . Anderson, a fourth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft, is out of the Burnaby, B.C., Winter Club. He had 79 points, including 42 goals, in 59 games with a bantam team there last season. . . . McNeil, from Sylvan Lake, Alta., was an eighth-round pick in the 2015 bantam draft. He had 37 points in 32 games with a bantam AAA team in Red Deer last season.
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F Ethan O’Rourke is back on the ice with the Prince George Cougars. A third-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft, O’Rourke, from Penticton, suffered an undisclosed injury during the summer and missed the start of training camp. . . . The Cougars said Wednesday that he “has been cleared to resume skating and has been added to the roster.” . . . The Cougars open their exhibition season with a game in Kamloops against the Blazers on Friday night.
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F Harris Pearce has signed with the Kootenay Ice. Pearce, from Port Coquitlam, B.C., is a 16-year-old list player. Last season, he had 19 points, including 10 goals, in 39 games with the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs, who won the the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League championship.
——Dale Derkatch confirmed Wednesday that he is stepping down as the Prince Albert Raiders’ director of scouting in order to join the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. He had been with the Raiders for six years, and will work with the Maple Leafs as an amateur scout. . . . Before joining the Raiders, Derkatch spent six seasons as an amateur scout with the NHL’s Washington Capitals. He also spent one season (2008-09) as the head coach of the Regina Pats, the team for which he starred for three seasons (1981-84). The 5-foot-5 Derkatch put up 491 points, including 218 goals, in 204 regular-season games. Yes, chew on those numbers for a few minutes.
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Got a tip or some information you feel could be useful to me, feel free to email me at greggdrinnan@gmail.com.
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The Swift Current Broncos have released F Miles Warkentine, a 19-year-old WHL veteran from Prince Albert. The Moose Jaw Warriors selected Warkentine in the first round of the 2011 bantam draft. He went on to split 138 regular-season games between the Warriors, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Broncos, putting up six goals and 13 assists. Last season, he had three points, two of them goals, in 18 games with Lethbridge, and then was pointless in 13 games with the Broncos. . . .
After two seasons with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, F Carter Amson, 19, has decided to go to school. Amson, from Radisson, Sask., was a second-round pick in the 2011 bantam draft. He had two assists in 32 games as a freshman in 2013-14, then had one goal in 46 games last season. . . .
F Ryan Keller, who now plays for the Zurich Lions in the Swiss NL A, played four seasons (2001-05) with the Saskatoon Blades. He has purchased two Blades season-tickets and, according to a news release, is donating them to “the servicemen and servicewomen in CFB Dundurn and the Saskatoon area” so they can enjoy WHL games. They are calling the initiative Keller’s Commandos. The news release reads: “The initiative . . . also symbolizes the importance the Blades place on both the valuable work done by the servicemen and servicewomen as well as the relationship they have with alumni. The team is committed to taking both relationships to even higher levels in the future.” . . .
F Wyatt Johnson scored three third-period goals in a losing cause as Team Black edged Team White 6-5 in the Red Deer Rebels’ intrasquad game on Tuesday, in front of about 1,500 fans. Johnson, an NHL free agent, will attend the Anaheim Ducks’ rookie camp later this month. Team White took a 5-0 lead into the third period. F Jack McClelland had two goals for the winners, who got a goal and three assists from F Lane Pederson. . . . Czech F Michael Spacek, preparing for his first season with Red Deer, was held out of the game with a slight groin injury. . . .
Team Red beat Team White 7-4 in the Edmonton Oil Kings’ intrasquad game, with the line of Brayden Brown, Brett Pollock and Brendan Klatt combining for the winners’ first four goals. Brown had four assists, with Klatt and Pollock each scoring twice and adding an assist. . . .
In Victoria, F Dawson Frank, a 16-year-old from Duncan, B.C., scored the winner as Team Blue beat Team White 4-3 in the Royals’ intrasquad game. . . . Frank was an eight-round pick by the Royals in the 2014 bantam draft. . . .
The Vancouver Giants scratched three veteran players — F Tyler Benson, F Taylor Crunk and D Ryley McKinstry — from their intrasquad game, all with undisclosed injuries. . . . Team Howe, behind two goals from Slovakian F Radovan Bondra, beat Team Quinn, 7-2 in the Alumni Challenge.
——The Seattle Thunderbirds and their home arena, the ShoWare Center, are working to help the Twisp River Fallen Firefighters Fund. “The T-Birds will be donating 100 per cent of all preseason game ticket revenue on Wednesday, Sept. 9, between noon and midnight on the T-Birds website and between noon and 5 p.m., at the ShoWare Center box office to the Twisp River Fallen Firefighters Fund. This fund is administered by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.” . . . Fans are being encouraged to buy tickets to a Sept. 18 game between the Thunderbirds and the visiting Victoria Royals. “Fans will be able to purchase a minimum of four tickets to the preseason game for $20 with the $20 going directly to the Fund,” according to the news release. “Tickets may be purchased on the T-Birds website or at the ShoWare Center box office on Sept. 9. Additional tickets above the minimum purchase will be priced at $5 a ticket and will also donated to the Fund. ShoWare Center is waiving all ticket service charges for the preseason game, further maximizing the amount of money that will be donated to the Twisp River Fallen Firefighters Fund.”